Forum:Ultimate Hero Strategy
Hi there. I haven't any knowledge how to edit a Wiki and this will stay my only post. So I won't even try to format this text. Most customize wizard strategies rely on either normal units (Alchemy and Warlord) or fantasy creatures (11 books). I want to describe a strategy, which relies on heroes only. It's probably the easiest way to win Master of Magic without having to build a huge empire (11 books excluded). I personally burn to ground all captured cities. Even under highest level of difficulty and largest land size, the success rate of this strategy will still lie at roughly 95 %. First of all, what does a decent hero need? Undeniably some good stats. Heroes get better stats by gaining levels and also by wearing good artifacts. If you choose the pick Artificier, you start with the spell Create Artifact and costs of creating artifacts is halved. If you choose Runemaster additionally, then the costs of artifacts will be even quatered. With those 2 picks combined you can gain mana by successively creating and destroying (anvil symbol on Item screen) artifacts. For each mana spent, you'll get back 2 mana. The higher your casting skill, the faster you will earn mana. Each spell casting hero will increase your overland casting skill by half of its skill. With the help of Heroism and some artifacts, you can increase the skill of a a spell casting hero to at least 40. Problem is, that Runemaster requires 2 books in 3 different spell realms. There's another thing, which is indispensable for a decent hero. Without Magic Immunity, the enemy wizards will kill it with ease using spells like Psionic Blast, Doom Bolt, Ice Bolt, Fire Bolt or Lightning Bolt. Magic Immunity also makes you immune to all Life-Stealing, Breath and Gaze attacks (except Doom Gaze). There is an easy way to assure to get Magic Immunity. Some spells can be applied directly to artifacts - Magic Immunity is among them. You don't even have to learn the corresponding spell. It just depends on the number of spell books you have in this realm. Magic Immunity enchantment requires 5 Sorcery books. With 5 sorcery books, you'll also be able to enchant items with Flight and Invisibility. Invisibility enchantment is bugged though. The enemy will know, where you are. Still, enemy units can't attack from distance and they will suffer a -1 to hit penalty, provided enemy hasn't Immunity to Illusions or True Sight. There's no unit/creature, which can attack an invisible, magic immune hero from distance. With that information it's pretty obviously, how your wizard should look like: hero: Jafar (because Jafar tends to use Spell Blast) books: - 5 Sorcery (such that artifacts can be enchanted with Flight, Invisibility, Magic Immunity) - 2 Life (useful spells like Heroism, Healing, True Sight, Resurrection, Prayer, Lionheart, Incarnation, Invulnerability Reincarnation) - 2 Chaos or alternatively Nature (needed to choose Runemaster pick) retorts: Artificier, Runemaster (to reduce manufacturing costs of artifacts) spells: Heroism, Hell Hounds, Phantom Warrior, Word of Recall, Counter Magic, Psionic Blast race: High Elf (for extra mana) That's what I do at the start: - put tax rate to 2 - use complete power base to create mana - create artifact with 38 costs and sell it for 75 mana - use complete power base to increase casting skill - create a magic spirit and discover the environment - if possible conquer some nearbye Sorcery or Chaos Nodes (hell hounds, phantom warriors) - collect 100 gold as fast as possible, so that some hero might show up From that point onwards, there's no clear way how to proceed. Some enemy wizards (Ariel <3) may help you to learn certain spells, with Healing, Summon Hero, Prayer and Summon Champion leading the way, followed by Blur, Resurrection and Incarnation. Normally, I don't build cities. This way, enemy wizards will underestimate my power until it's too late. But sometimes it's better to be aggressive at the start (e.g. against Kali, see weak points below). If you get early a spell casting hero, then you can bump its spell skill. With that additional global spell casting skill, you don't have to spend that much money to increase your wizard's casting skill. So you can spent your mana in spell research to get Summon Hero. With Summon Hero, you might be able to get more powerful heroes like Ymrag, Shin Bo or Fang. Most heroes have extra picks, which can be quite handsome. The most useful skills are Lucky (reduces enemy's to hit by 1, increases your shields' success rate), Agility and Constitution. Heroes with ranged attack also profit much from Blademaster. If you get a fighter hero early (Shuri FTW), then you can try to kill enemy wizards as fast as possible with some half decent artifacts. A hero's defense can be increased by up to 15 shields (provided it can wear armor). This way, only a few units will still be able to hurt it. Resistance is pretty much useless, if your hero is immune to magic. Then, your crosses are only used for poison rolls. Some heroes have the skill Thrown Weapon, which can be boosted by axes (but axes' and amulets' To Hit won't count for Thrown Weapon). All other melee heroes get a sword from me. Let's take a closer look at how artifacts may look like: chain/plate: Magic Immunity, Endurance or 1-2 resistance , up to 8 defense and 4 movement amulet: Flight & most times Invisibility, up to 4 defense and attack (melee + ranged) weapon: spell skill or Flaming, 3 - 6 attack (melee OR ranged), 3 defense, up to 3 to hit weak points of this strategy: - Enemy Sorcery wizards may use Spell Blast to prevent you from creating artifacts or summoning heroes. That's why I start with Jafar. Horus will never use Spell Blast against you (as he likes you too much). - Enemy Nature wizards may use the combination Web and Cracks Call to let your heroes disappear forever (and with them all their artifacts). - Phantom Warriors and Phantom Beasts ignore your armor entirely (unless you cast True Sight). To write this short guide I played a test match, which I won in the year 1409 (112 rounds). I razed all enemy cities with Brax, the Dwarf. To get to the mirror plane he slayed a Demon Lord with ease. At the end, he had those attributes: 19 attack, + 5 to hit, 20 defense, 21 hit points, 7 moves overland map and of course Flying, Invisibilty and Magic Immunity. http://i40.tinypic.com/33uscag.png :This is a good strategy, but using Famous + Charismatic with 4 Life and 4 Sorcery books works just as well. I've played it both ways many times and overall I seem to like the Famous + Charismatic route better. For one thing I think being able to start with 4 Life is very helpful. It's true that you can't customize your Items as easily, but you get really good heroes really fast, and you can prevent getting attacked even longer with Charismatic and you start getting offers for items from merchants pretty early. I use Nomads for the modest gold bonus. I usually try to stay at just 2 or 3 towns and focus on taking Lairs and Nodes at first to get experience and loot, then once I've gotten a good stable of heroes I can start raizing towns. You could also do 3 Life and 5 Sorcery if you want a little more protection from Magic. With that you can still create some uber artifacts, though they will be costly. 15:18, April 11, 2018 (UTC) : :Thank you for the contribution. I used something similar on the Hard Difficulty level when I was lucky enough to get Fang on the first turn!! I had almost the same set up with Nature instead of Chaos books, and I used Jafar as is normal because I don't want him as an opponent. Again thanks for the info! MysticX2 (talk) 13:54, April 27, 2013 (UTC) :Hm ... if you got Fang on the first turn, it must mean you chose Famous and Charismatic. I agree that some further retorts (e.g. Archmage) would be handy, but then you would have to go without Invisibility and Magic Immunity. ::No, actually he was a prisoner in a dungeon that was guarded by a single creature. That's why I said lucky! It is one of the most memorable events for that very reason, and I had never seen Fang before. Another early encounter netted me a Double Axe of Pain. I think I found the last opponent's town in 1409 as well, but it may have been 1411 (I just remember it was a very quick game for me). I didn't bother with any neutral towns unless it was convenient. Does that make more sense? MysticX2 (talk) 10:05, April 28, 2013 (UTC) ::sadly, you need Archmage for this because otherwise your casting skill increases too slowly. then send your heroes to hunt lairs, and hope to find a sorcery book. by the way, i prefer healing over heroism. ::-letsdance :::>>you need Archmage for this because otherwise your casting skill increases too slowly. then send your heroes to hunt lairs, and hope to find a sorcery book. by the way, i prefer healing over heroism. :::That's why you lack casting skill in first place. You need heroism to make caster heros get extra casting skill with that magical level up, so they contribute more (quite a lot, I say) to your overland casting skill when they reside in your tower. Twilight Sparkle the Alicorn Princess (talk) 17:18, August 12, 2013 (UTC)